Every year now for nine years, on March 16th, beginning in the first year of the Academy in the Jubilee year 2000, we have made the pilgrimage to follow in the footsteps of two great martyrs of our country, Saints Jean de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant, who were captured and martyred on that day in 1649 near Midland, Ontario.  We visit the site where the two martyrs were captured (St. Louis) and the site where they were cruelly put to death (St. Ignace).  At the latter spot, there is also an altar, where every year on March 16th we have offered Mass (this year was an exception, due to it being Passion Sunday; we went to Mass at our own parish of Saint Hedwig's in the morning, and said Vespers at the site instead).

Now, for those of you from Ontario, you may ask, why go to the shrine in these blustery days of March, when the shrine is not even open, and the snow still deep?  I’ve often pondered that question myself as I trudge through three feet of the white stuff with a group of students at my back.  The answer returns to me with a forceful tug at my conscience, for by going on the actual day of the martyrdom, we are able to experience a faint image of what these two Jesuit martyrs went through, as well as pray to them on the day of their entrance into heaven.  Allow me to briefly explain: 

The Jesuits arrived in Canada in the early seventeenth century, at what is now Quebec City, and they soon made their way into the interior of this vast country, from Montreal, past Ottawa, up the Ottawa River, across Lake Nipissing, down the French River, across the storm-tossed seas of Georgian Bay, finally arriving after an 800 mile paddle and portage in what is now the Midland-Penetanguishene area.  Here, they evangelized the Huron Indians for many years, spreading the faith and the Gospel message.  Other tribes were not so amenable:  The Iroquois turned against the French, and the ‘blackrobes’ in particular.  The Iroquois-Huron war was part of the larger wars going on in Europe at the time between France, England and the Low Countries (now Holland), which in turn was part of an even larger war about religion.   

It was in the middle of this conflict that the two priests, Jean de Brebeuf, a giant of a man who had laboured for decades amongst the Hurons, and his fellow-laborer Gabriel Lalemant, a delicate scholar who had only been in Canada few months, were captured by the Iroquois.  They had left their Jesuit home base at Ste. Marie, a fortified retreat centre where the Jesuits lived along with many natives.  The two Jesuits departed in the chill air of the morning of March 15th for their tour of the surrounding villages.  They arrived in the village of St. Louis, where they spent the day in priestly work.  The next morning, March 16th, after they had said Mass, the village was attacked by the Iroquois.  After a vicious battle, during which the Jesuits, refusing to flee and abandon their neophytes, baptized and blessed whom they could, the two saints were captured and forcibly marched a few miles' distance across the snow to the neighbouring village of St. Ignace, along with numerous Huron captives. 

It was here at St. Ignace that the two Jesuits were tortured to death for their faith.  Their sufferings recall the most brutal martyrdoms in the history of the Church’s annals, and I hesitate to describe them here.  Suffice it to say that with the burnings, slashings, and mutilations they underwent before death, Jean de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant offered themselves as true holocausts not only for the people of their age, but, I believe, also for the people of our country today.  Their blood makes the field that marks the location of St. Ignace one of the holiest pieces of ground in our country.  Jean de Brebeuf died late in the afternoon of March 16th, while his confrere Gabriel died the next morning.  How many Huron martyrs died with them we do not know. 

We ourselves departed on our pilgrimage after Mass on Passion Sunday morning.  Hiring a coach and a very amenable driver, we talked, read, sang and prayed on the three-and-a-half-hour drive to Midland.  We visited the site of Ste. Marie, the graves of the martyrs, and the shrine itself, following the Stations of the Cross (through the snow) at the near life-size stations on the shrine grounds. 

After that, we drove to the top of the peninsula to the site of the first Mass said in Ontario (back then, Upper Canada), celebrated on August 12, 1615, by Father Le Caron, a Recollet Franciscan, in the presence of Samuel de Champlain and twelve others. 

Then, it was off to St. Louis and the site of the capture.  We trudged the 500 yards or so to the monument, gathering around to hear an account of the capture from a life of Saint Jean de Brebeuf by Father Francis Talbot. 

Our final stop was at the site of the martyrdom itself, where there is cross placed on what is believed to be the actual place in the longhouse where the martyrs suffered.  The account of the martyrdom was read, followed this year by Vespers.  The awareness of how much our country is founded on the blood and sacrifice of others is palpable in that clearing, with the late winter sun setting in the horizon, as it must have done as the mighty Jean himself was dragged outside to receive his death blow.  I wonder if God gave Father de Brebeuf a vision of what Canada would be like in the future:  what was and is a beautiful country with untold resources and promise is now in danger of losing her birthright irrevocably with the spread of the culture of death. 

We were standing on holy ground indeed, and the choices before us as the people of Canada are grave.   

Catholicism, however, is in the end a religion of joy, and the martyrs themselves, after suffering for a time, are now in heavenly bliss interceding for us.  We, as still incarnate beings, stopped for pizza on the way home, sharing fellowship and camaraderie.  After all, the cross only makes sense if there is a resurrection, just as Good Friday is only good because of Easter Sunday. 

Let us therefore join our prayers with those of these martyrs:  we should pray for ourselves, our Church and our country.  If you are able, make your own pilgrimage to Martyrs’ Shrine and the surrounding area.  These sites should be thronging with pilgrims!  The universal feast day of the North American martyrs is September 26th in Canada, and October 19th in the United States (on both days, the weather is much more amenable to pilgrims!).  Of course, we remember also the other six martyrs of North America, Saints Isaac Jogues, Antoine Daniel, Charles Garnier, Noel Chabanel, Rene Goupil and Jean de la Londe, three of whom died near Auriesville, New York (where there is another martyrs' shrine).

For information on how to find any of these places, please feel free to contact us.  Saint Jean de Brebeuf, Gabriel Lalemant and companion martyrs, orate pro nobis!